Mother of three murdered outside home

February 23, 2010 2:41:38 PM PST

Eyewitness News

VALLEY STREAM, N.Y. --

Homicide detectives retraced her final steps, digging for evidence and canvassing the neighborhood for clues on Tuesday. It was just after 11:00 Monday night when Jean Marie Beaudouin, 37, was gunned down in front of her own home.

"She pulls into the driveway and she encounters a person who fires a shot at her, and then several shots" Det. Lt. Kevin Smith said. "It appears she suffered from upper body trauma. She was whisked away to the hospital."

Neighbors on Barry Drive heard the sound of unsettling sound gunfire. Patricia Larkin was home getting ready for bed.

"I thought it was a truck backfiring at first because cause I never even thought that it could be a gunshot here," she said.

"It's very devastating because you find out that someone that you know got gunned down. This is not something that you want to wake up in the morning to find out about your friend," Robinson Joseph, the victim's friend, said.

Friends gathered at the home to console the family on Tuesday. Beaudouin lived here with her husband and 3 young daughters, ages 10, 6 and 3.

Investigators say her husband was home when she was killed.

"We're going to explore every relationship that she had like we typically do on these homicide investigations. Right now, it's a wide open investigation," Smith said.

Police said Beaudouin had gone out for food for her family right before the shooting.